Hello everybody, its been a while since I worked with linux but after playing around a friend's Karmic I thought I'd switch back.

Problem though...

I've reinstalled Ubuntu 9.10 three times today, everytime deleting the previous partition and everytime installing on a different hard drive. I've googled the problem and searched these forums but to no viable solution. I really hope somebody can assist me.

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###And results from bootinfoscript

=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sda and looks for
(UUID=b9721c23-1cc0-4b63-8104-a580acfde955)/boot/grub.
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdb and looks on the same drive in
partition #5 for /boot/grub.
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdc
=> Windows is installed in the MBR of /dev/sdd
=> Grub 2 is installed in the MBR of /dev/sde and looks for
(UUID=b9721c23-1cc0-4b63-8104-a580acfde955)/boot/grub.

### BEGIN /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###
# This file provides an easy way to add custom menu entries. Simply type the
# menu entries you want to add after this comment. Be careful not to change
# the 'exec tail' line above.
### END /etc/grub.d/40_custom ###

Have you tried changing the BIOS boot order to boot your Ubuntu device (sde) first? It's possible your system is booting directly to the Windows MBR and thus bypassing GRUB 2 entirely. Note the * boot device designation isn't used by Ubuntu.

The good news is that your Grub 2 menu looks good and has already picked up your Windows install, so once you get your system to find the proper device you shouldn't have any more problems.

Beanmonster

February 20th, 2010, 05:36 PM

Firstly, thank you for your fast response.

Ubuntu and WinXP are installed side-by-side on the same drive, which is already my primary boot drive in my BIOS, changing this didn't help :(

The ubuntu installation never detected any other OS's, if thats useful.

Looking at my bootinfoscript results above, i see that Grub 2 is installed on /sda, /sdb, and /sde. Is that normal?

badaveil

February 20th, 2010, 05:41 PM

Beanmonster

I agree with drs305. If that is the case:

1. Place the installation cd in the cd drive;
2. Reboot pc and immediate when the black screen appears,note which F key is the boot menu, it could be F2, F10, F12, different make different F key;
3. Quickly press that recommended F key for many 1-2 secs and the boot menu option appears. If BIOS menu appears, select the tittle which mentions about boot order;
4.Select CD drive and if in BIOS menu, make that selection go ahead of the hard disk usually "HD0", you may need to use F5 and F6 or the arrow buttons. Save and exit;
5. If you still get Windows on reboot, the boot menu order is still not what you want, check the order, CD drive on top, hard disk next.

badaveil

February 20th, 2010, 05:50 PM

Ubuntu and WinXP are installed side-by-side on the same drive, which is already my primary boot drive in my BIOS, changing this didn't help :(

If dual-booting is what you want, may I recommend:

1. Go to Windows Control Panel and select Administrative tools
2. Select Computer something and it brings you to computer management.
3. You can see at least the two main partitions one for windows and on the right a second partition probably NTFS.
4. Right click that partition and delete that logical drive until you get free space. You can even delete that until you get unallocated space. Be it free or unallocated that will be the space Ubuntu will use because you limit yourself hard disk space when you use NTFS.
5. Reboot pc, ensure boot via installation cd, thing should be OK then

Beanmonster

February 20th, 2010, 06:04 PM

drs305, this is for you: http://tinyurl.com/y9xq98x

badaveil, this is for you: http://tinyurl.com/badaveil (http://tinyurl.com/badaveil)

I managed to replace my windows MBR with GRUB 2 after much struggle.

Thank you guys for your support, people like you make this community worth being part of.:)

I am no longer well versed in Windows - but once again I've allowed myself to be drawn into it's web. ;-)

I can make a few observations and ask some questions.

Ubuntu and WinXP are installed side-by-side on the same drive, which is already my primary boot drive in my BIOS, changing this didn't help :(

They are indeed both installed on sde, but in the boot info script it is not showing Windows boot files on that partition. It is showing Windows boot files on sdc. Your sdc drive (Main) - what do you have on that drive, since it appears that is where the only boot files are located according to the boot info script?

The ubuntu installation never detected any other OS's, if thats useful.

You must be referring to the initial install, as the grub.cfg file has found Windows boot files on sdc1 and included it in your Grub 2 menu. But again that begs the question about sdc.

Looking at my bootinfoscript results above, i see that Grub 2 is installed on /sda, /sdb, and /sde. Is that normal?
It is probably the remants of your multiple installs. It is not a problem for sda and sde, since they both point to sde5 for the Grub files (which is where they are). The current Grub install on sdb is a bit problematic since it points to sdb5 for the Grub files, which are not there. As long as you aren't booting sdb first, it isn't an immediate problem. Once you can get into Ubuntu, you can run "sudo dpkg-reconfigure grub-pc" to remove Grub 2 from sdb if you wish.